"More Than a Cry"

"Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications." (Psalms 86:6)
It might not seem as though He answers all of our prayers, and maybe it's good that He doesn't; but if you really think about it, most of the time we really don't know what to ask for. I know, we might have something that feels as though it's life threatening or needs God's immediate attention, but that's not really how things work in the spiritual sense. In other words, what makes sense in our material world and for our material needs, does not line up with spiritual needs, and vice versa. Only God has the answers to what is best for our spiritual needs. Sometimes, those around us need more help with spiritual needs than us, so we get to become a tool to sharpen them. No matter what, we must come to the place where we totally trust that God is listening, and that He responds to our prayers. It might not be the response that we were looking for or had in mind; but nonetheless, God does listen and responds to His children, we can have confidence in that. (1 John 5:14-15) Having said that, I know for certain that it's easy to doubt God's response is even happening; I think I am a pretty good person to give testimony to that. But I also know that God gives us just what we need to get through another day of hoping, or another day of patience, or another day of grace; no matter what, He knows what we can handle and what it takes to break us; but sometimes breaking us is the only way to get us to hand everything over to Him. The way I see it, prayers are more than crying out to God; even when we are crying out, our prayers have direction and tangibility. Even though we can't actually see or touch God, we know that He can see and touch us; and it is that relationship we have with Him that gives us the confidence in knowing that He listens to every single prayer that we pray, because it's not this life that matters the most, but it's the next...
"That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) NLT